Research on California City Councils Honored for Use of California Elections Data Archive

The Center for California Studies at Sacramento State has selected the recipient of its annual award for exceptional published research that uses data from the California Elections Data Archive. The article, Business as usual: Politicians with business experience, government finances, and policy outcomes, was published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization in November 2016. The authors are Dr. Brian Beach of the College of William and Mary, and Dr. Daniel B. Jones of the University of South Carolina.

The article explores whether government finances and policy outcomes different under politicians with business experience. As a key source of data, the article makes use of city council elections results that are tabulated in the California Elections Data Archive (CEDA). CEDA is the only statewide database that collects, tabulates and reports candidate and ballot measure results for all local California elections. CEDA reports include all candidates, their ballot designations and vote totals, as well as all ballot measures, their ballot summary information, and vote totals. CEDA is a partnership between the Center for California Studies and the Institute of Social Research (ISR) at Sacramento State, and the California Secretary of State. More information about CEDA, and access to the database, are available at http://www.csus.edu/calst/california_election_data_archives.html.

“We are pleased to be honoring this research, which makes an important contribution to our understanding of how professional experience affects politicians’ policies,” said Steve Boilard, Executive Director at Sacramento State’s Center for California Studies. “We are especially pleased that CEDA data was helpful in answering the researchers’ questions. That’s why we help to support the CEDA project.”